Edgar Kumley, who was appointed postmaster of Redig, SD, during President Harry S. Truman’s administration and who served in that role for 65 years, died April 6 at age 102.
Kumley’s tenure as postmaster was the third-longest at the same office in postal history. His father, Earl, and his mother, Ella, also served as Redig postmasters.
He even worked as a relief postmaster in the area after retiring from USPS in 2015.
“I’ve never met a problem I couldn’t solve,” Kumley told the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal at his retirement celebration.
Kumley spoke with the USPS historian’s office in 2012 and recounted memories of the Dust Bowl, when he saw entire families walking west across the prairie with everything they owned.
“We would take them in and feed them, and the next morning they were on their way again across the gumbo,” Kumley said. “Gumbo” is a term commonly used in the Great Plains for fine clay soil that can get particularly mucky when wet but develops large cracks in drought conditions such as during the Dust Bowl.
“I always enjoyed his stories on how the original PO Box section was hauled over on a covered wagon,” said Dorothy Wallace, postmaster of Bowman, ND.
According to his obituary, Kumley also worked as a telephone lineman, sheep herder, night lamb guardian, mechanic, welder and rancher.
His granddaughter, Victoria Constantin, now serves as Redig’s relief postmaster, carrying on the family tradition.
“Edgar was always busy,” Constantin said. “At 98, he was still running around fixing cars and feeding cows. And in the summers, he would cut, swath and haul hay to prepare for winter.”
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